You've seen those commercials: "You're not just in debt, debt is all around
you." Or how about the one with the Huns rampaging in to pillage with their
murderous interest rates? Or the counselor who says: "Our clients are going off
a cliff and at the bottom lies a bankruptcy"?

It's enough to keep you up nights.

In an Associated Press/IPSOS poll of 1,000 adults taken in early December,
half of all Americans say they worry frequently about their debt, many of them
saying they worry "most of the time." While economists say some people need to
use credit in slow times, psychologists cite more reasons -- to punish spouses
or stuff down their pain in brief bursts of consumption-related satisfaction.

The average household has 10 credit cards, and the average interest rate is
19%. To pay each card off at the minimum monthly payment alone would take
decades.